Prior to last Thursday the Suns were 5-9 in January, coming off a pair of back breaking losses to Utah and Charlotte, and were looking to toss Amar’e Stoudemire out of town on the first train coming by that was offering cap space. The run of being below average stretched as far back as December 1st and as of last Thursday morning they sat on the outside looking in of the playoff picture.
What’s changed 4 days later? A pair of tough wins over Dallas and Houston have vaulted the Suns back into 7th in the West (and just 1.5 games back of 4th) and have inspired a glimmer of hope. I say only a glimmer because this is still a team that has played below average basketball for 2 months and hasn’t even won three straight games since the end of November. Add to that it’s a virtual certainty that they’ll be trading their top scorer prior to the February 18th trade deadline and again – glimmer. I suppose it’s something.
Following the Suns overtime loss to the Bobcats last Tuesday night I’d accepted that the only real reason to watch the games until an Amar’e trade was for the development of Robin Lopez, Goran Dragic, and Earl Clark as painful loss after painful loss was endured. Now with a couple of decent wins, at a bare minimum I feel like I can actually give a damn about wins and losses for a few more games. You know – until they again lose to the CP3-less Hornets tonight and follow it up by blowing a 15 point lead to Denver on Wednesday. If you were looking for optimism (or D’Arcy Maine porn) you’ve come to the wrong place.
